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WorldCat, making FirstSearch uniquely valuable

At the center of FirstSearch is WorldCat, a cooperative database of bibliographic records contributed by more than libraries, making it the world’s largest, most complete, and most consulted library union catalog. Your users can quickly find what they’re looking for among the 336 million global information sources in all formats—books, full text, electronic books and journals, Web-based articles, and audio and video recordings—from the full range of recorded history.

Users find what they want

Because search results are automatically ranked by the most widely-held items, searchers are more likely to be successful in locating items in your library or in nearby libraries.

Focuses attention on your resources first

The WorldCat listings produced by FirstSearch can be focused to show only the collections within your library or your library group—effectively acting as a local catalog—with Web links and full-image, full-text access where available.

Makes your collection more visible

WorldCat also highlights your collection by indicating when your library or group owns an item, whether the user performing the search is across town or on the other side of the world. These WorldCat ownership icons in FirstSearch facilitate resource borrowing and lending between nearly one billion library locations through OCLC’s WorldCat Resource Sharing program.

Quality records, continuously refined

Quality control programs at OCLC and its member institutions and the application of international standards help eliminate duplicate records and keep reliability high. And OCLC regularly adds enhancements to WorldCat requested by FirstSearch users; recent additions include search term suggestions and the ability to refine search results by audience, content, or format.

College students on WorldCat:

“[WorldCat is] not only the most comprehensive but also the very best library catalog search engine I have ever used… I’ve never seen such a collection of well-implemented, easy-to-use, genuinely useful features in one place.”

“I am in love with the More Like This features you have added…this makes narrowing down a search so much fun… and easy!”